Light rail project gets good report

By JANE HADLEY, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Sunday, July 6, 2003

The federal auditor whose scathing report two years ago on Sound Transit's troubled Seattle light rail project caused a $500 million grant to be suspended said the agency has turned things around Monday.

The long-awaited report puts in motion a process that could lead to restoration of the suspended grant in two months. The chief potential roadblock on the horizon is opposition from several Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, who have raised questions about whether the project is worth the cost.

"We are reporting that Sound Transit has significantly strengthened its proposal for constructing the project's first segment," said Kenneth Mead, inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation, in a letter accompanying the 39-page audit report.

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"The inspector general has said Sound Transit is off and running," said U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who released the report.

Sound Transit's estimates of the cost, schedule and funding for the 14-mile light rail line are reasonable, Mead said. The contingency for the project to cover unexpected costs is also reasonable by industry standards, he said.

"It's an amazing turnaround," said King County Executive Ron Sims, chair of Sound Transit's board. "It is a success story in every real, honest, factual way."

The light rail project, scheduled to be completed by July 2009, will run from downtown Seattle under Beacon Hill, through the Rainier Valley and then west to a park-and-ride lot at South 154th Street. Shuttles would carry passengers the1.6 remaining miles to the airport.

"We believe the airport would be a more logical end point for the segment," Mead said. However, he noted that Sound Transit and the Port of Seattle have announced an agreement to extend line to the airport by 2011.

But Mead said an important revenue source for light rail is a .3 motor vehicle excise tax that Initiative 776 repealed. The initiative was found unconstitutional by a King County Superior Court judge but is being reviewed by the State Supreme Court.

Mead recommended that before federal funding is committed to the light rail project, Sound Transit's board be required to formally agree that it would find other local revenues to replace the estimated $29 million that would be lost if Initiative 776 is found constitutional and found to apply to Sound Transit.

Sims said the board would pass the resolution recommended by Mead, but noted that most legal experts believe it is unlikely the court will find the initiative applies to Sound Transit.

Mead also noted that in the U.S. Department of Transportation's experience with other large, complex projects, careful monitoring of costs will be required as the project proceeds.

Sound Transit has "adequately addressed the safety issues" involved when both buses and light rail use the downtown Seattle transit tunnel at the same time, the audit found.

Finally, Mead said that the project has met Federal Transit Administration standards for a "standalone project" that won't depend on future federal funding to be a viable project.